Who I am

First off I realise with the user name 'Hockey_Princess' I look like one of those 'Puck Bunnies'. Though I am only 2 seasons into my following hockey everyday, there are still a few points I miss in the game, but hopefully you don't 'judge a book by its cover' (or user name in this case). Now that I've got that out of the way, I was born and raised a Habs girl, and even though I have been known to rattle off the stats from the latest Pens game, I will always be a Habs girl. Yes that means I hate the Leafs and Leafs fans too. I just don't get how they can still have so many supporters after soo many(40 to be exact) years of failure. BUT its kinda nice to see they haven't jumped on the latest bandwagon, and I respect that. So I mentioned the Penguins and you can probably figure out why I started following them, yes its because the boy from Cole Harbour, but let me explain myself. Where to start...OK, I can't remember exactly when I first heard about 'the Next One'...I'm sure I saw highlights from his days before Juniors, although, growing up I didn't have cable so all I got for hockey information was on the news or Hockey Night in Canada. However being from the Maritimes how could I have missed any news about Sidney Crosby. When we was drafted in the QMJHL he went to play in my Father's home town,Rimouski. So that's when I started to hear more about him, and as you can probably tell no cable equals no internet. It wasn't until I finished High School and moved away from home that I got more involved in hockey, being in Ottawa I still managed to cheer for my Habs, even if I was one of only a few. Once I finished my course in Ottawa I moved back home. Still no cable and very slow dial up my love for hockey faded a bit. When I finally got high speed internet I had to suffer through the lock out, ok that might not have been as hard for me as it was for others that followed hockey a lot more closely to this point, also I still got updates on how Crosby and the 'Nics were doing. I remember rushing home from work to hear that Sidney was drafted by the Pens(I had missed the whole 'lottery') I mean I knew the Pens were the first to pick and I knew they were gonna take Sidney, but it was official when I arrived home from work. I couldn't wait for the 2005-06 season to start...Still cable-less and unable to find live streams online, I listened to at least one game a night, if the Habs or Pens weren't playing I listened to whichever other game I was pratically interested in, because honestly I like just about every team, that isn't the Leafs. I mean sure there is the odd player on each team that I hate, but there are players I like too. ANYWAY I followed all the goals and assists from season 1 of 'The Crosby Show' and the day after the games I tracked down any highlights I could find. I followed the Playoffs, but as usual my teams went out earlier then I would had hoped, I think I wanted Edmonton to win, but afraid to openly admit I was cheering for them, because of my previous predictions. However after the Pens season ended, I checked up on the scores from the Worlds. Happy to hear Sidney doing so well and representing Canada, a little upset with the results of the tournament, but you can't win everything, right? And if he did win everything so early in his career, what would be the fun in that? I followed the draft a bit more closely in 2006, somewhat excited to see the 3rd of 4 Staals to be a future Penguin. I also followed Evgeni Malkin's travels to play in the NHL, even thought I hadn't really heard about him, until he was hiding out to try and get to America. Then patiently(sometimes impatiently) waited for the summer to end and the training camps to start. At the start of the 2006-07 season, the Pittsburgh Penguins came to Moncton for about a week(I think) to practice and they played an exhibition game there and one in Halifax, however because of work and the travel I didn't get to go to either of the games. So close and yet so far. I did get to finally watch a couple of QMJHL games one was and exhibition game and one was a regular season game. During the season I still followed my NHL teams and Sidney Crosby. I had joined a few(3 or 4) hockey pools also, I didn't win but I had fun and I didn't come dead last, in any of them. The highlight of my hockey 'career' so far, came in January of 2007 just before the All Star break, my sister won a trip for 2 to Pittsburgh to see a game and to meet Sidney Crosby after the game(but I will write that whole story in my next blog). I finished out the season, sad for my Habs that didn't make it in the Playoffs but because they weren't there it made it that much easier for me to cheer on the Pens, the boys I'd come to love(almost as much as my Habs). When the Pens went out in the first round, I cheered for different teams, but like the years before 'my' teams got eliminated one by one. I ultimately picked the winning team(but when there are only 2 left its 50-50 chance, so I won't brag). Then we all know after the Stanley Cup celebrations they had the NHL Awards, and I know I wasn't the only one proud of the accomplishments of all the players and the teams as a whole, but I was very proud of Sidney receiving all 3(well deserved) awards that he was nominated for. OH! and I had also followed the Worlds while the Playoffs were going on, their games were earlier then the NHL games, so I managed to watch them online(they had also streamed the CBC games online). I was proud of the Canadian boys bringing home the gold....And that brings us to today, I'm looking forward to the draft, but I honestly don't know many(if any) of the young guys, but I look forward to seeing who is going where and how they do in the near future....So that's how I got to here, I'm sure there is more but that's all I have for now.